	<p>
		There were supposedly eleven witnesses to the existence of the golden plates, aside from Joseph Smith himself - the author of the Book of Mormon and supposed translator of said plates.
		If you were to start up a religion, or even an offshoot of a religion, you too would gather witnesses to make your religion seem valid.
		You might bribe these witnesses with any number of things, such as seats of power within your church.
		Claiming there are witnesses, and those witnesses bearing testimony, doesn&apos;t say much when you&apos;re hiding the evidence from the rest of the world.
		By not producing the plates for the world to see, Smith made it very difficult to believe such plates ever existed.
	</p>
	<p>
		It&apos;s also worth noting that five of these witnesses are from the Whitmer family and three are from Joseph Smiths&apos;s own family.
		One is even Smith&apos;s father.
		His own family is going to be biased, obviously, and the number of Whitmers makes me wonder if the Whitmer family and the Smith family have close ties as well.
		Aside from people from these two families, there are only three other supposed witnesses.
	</p>
	<p>
		An interesting excuse for being unable to produce the plates that were &quot;translated&quot; is presented in the book:
	</p>
	<div class="cited-quotation">
		<cite>2 Nephi 27:22</cite>
		<blockquote>
			<p>
				Wherefore, when thou hast read the words which I have commanded thee, and obtained the witnesses which I have promised unto thee, then shalt thou seal up the book again, and hide it up unto me, that I may preserve the words which thou hast not read, until I shall see fit in mine own wisdom to reveal all things unto the children of men.
			</p>
		</blockquote>
	</div>
	<p>
		Basically, the plate contain more than the Book of Mormon, but Jehovah wants to withhold the rest from us for now.
		The claim, obviously, is that the plates can&apos;t be shown to people because they might read more from them than they&apos;re supposed to.
		It leaves an interesting loophole to allow Smith to add more scriptures if he wants to later, too.
		Mostly though, it seems to just be an excuse as to why these alleged plates cannot be produced.
	</p>
